Aikuisten neuvottelua lasten näkyvyydestä: Lasten toimijuus ja ei-toimijuus sharenting-ilmiötä käsittelevissä uutis- ja blogiteksteissä

Abstract

In this article, I examine how children’s agency is structured discursively in news and blog texts dealing with the sharing of children’s images. The article’s approach towards childhood comes from sociological childhood studies, which emphasizes children’s agency and participation in the society. The data consists of a total of 95 Finnish news articles and blog posts, which deal with the so-called sharenting phenomenon, i.e. the way parents share pictures and information about their children on social media platforms. With the help of multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), I have identified three discourses that construct children’s agency in the public debate: 1) The discourse of control, 2) The discourse of time, and 3) The discourse of special quality. I suggest that the public debate about the sharenting phenomenon reproduces the way of representing childhood by adults and for adults. Children`s voices are seldom heard in the debate. The discussion is also characterized by anticipation, where the adults’ viewpoints are focused on the children’s growth and development and possible changes in regulation of sharenting phenomenon.